May 05, 2019
Fishing Time: 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Rating: 5
Weather Conditions: Sunny with Clear Skies
Bait: Gary Yamamoto 5″ Green Pumpkin/Watermelon Senko with 1/0 Gamakatsu Wacky Worm Hook
Rod: G-Loomis GX2 Jig and Worm Rod
Reel: Quantum Catalyst PT
Line: 8-pound Seaguar InvizX Fluorocarbon
Total Bass Caught: 1
Final Weigh in Weight: 1.89 pounds
60. The magic water temperature in Lake Washington where the bass come out of hibernation and start moving back towards the shallows. Ever since I got back from college a few days ago, I have anxiously been watching the water temperatures in my local lakes, waiting for them to hit 60 degrees and provide some of the best fishing of the year. Fortunately for me, today was the day. Since I wanted to give the water time to heat up, I started my fishing outing a little later than normal and hit the lake around 5:30 p.m. Knowing that the bass were in spawning mode, I decided to start off by fishing the rocky flats near Newcastle Beach Park. I alternated between a wacky worm and a jerkbait, using the wacky worm to fish docks and the jerkbait to fish the areas in between. The first half of the Newcastle Beach stretch proved to be unproductive, but eventually I came upon a raised dock that allowed me enough room to skip my worm under the dock. I made a perfect skip cast to the middle pocket and as soon as my worm hit the bottom, I felt something hammer my bait. I gave a big hookset and the fight was on. I’ve found that bass always fight harder during the spawn and this bass was no exception. It put up a spectacular fight and when I finally got it into the boat it came out to be a solid 1.89 pound smallmouth. After that the bite went cold, so I motored over to Enetai Beach to fish the rocky flats over there. Unfortunately, I didn’t find any success over their either, so, happy with my first bass of the year, I decided to call it a day.
Observations: The water temperature ranged from 58-62 degrees, which means that the bass in Lake Washington are beginning to enter spawning mode. I didn’t spot any nests on the docks that I fished, but having caught my bass in eight feet of water, the bass are definitely starting to move towards the shallows. The bass that I caught had a huge stomach on it and absolutely swallowed my worm, which tells me that the bass are starting to become more aggressive and are actively feeding. One thing that I noticed is that the vegetation is coming back a lot later in the season than it did last year and only about 1/3 of the lilies near the boat launch have grown back. This indicates that the water is warming up slower than last year. I suspect that more bass will start heading towards the docks and rocky flats soon, which will make for some great bass fishing in the next couple of weeks. All in all, it was great to catch my first bass of the year and I look forward to seeing what the rest of the summer will bring.